About Me

7/30/07

Well, going to LA that is. Hollywood, the every-so glamorous city that seems to host a menagerie of celebrities, celeb-realities, and wannabe celebrities. A group of us headed to Hollywood on Saturday night to celebrate some bdays - for two lovely ladies. But of course, you can't just get ready like you would for a normal night out. No.

So first stop was a new do...hairdo that is. Finally decided to take the plunge and cut off about 5 inches. For a girl, that's a lot. Well, I guess for a guy too. But lordy they shouldn't have 5 inches to cut off! Anyways, J's sister did an amazing job and I'm in love. After visiting the MAC counter and getting ready, I picked up one of the bday girls, N, and we headed to Hollywood.

Got stuck in traffic (gotta love LA!) and made it to the restaurant right on time. Unfortunately, no one else did! We grabbed some margaritas from the bar. We were adventurous. I tried a "blood orange" margarita. Very good! And N got a "prickly pear" margarita. Her's was bright pink! Who knew? Finally one of her friend's showed up, followed by a limo...Apparently the other bday girl had to show up in style too! Although hers was a surprise.

So as we proceed to our table (about 45 minutes after the reservation) the rest of the party shows up. After chips, guacamole, enchiladas, (more) margaritas, and about 500 pictures, we all head out for the evening. This was a short trip up the street to a very random bar. I've never heard of it, but that seriously doesn't say much. I never go to Hollywood. Never. I think the last time I went there was over a year ago. Just too much for me. I enjoy hanging out at home with friends and booze, or a dive bar. But don't like spending money to park everywhere, $10 drinks, expensive food, and wearing uncomfortable shoes. But for nights like this, I coax myself into going. But seriously, I had fun.

Where was J through all of this you ask? At home. He (really) doesn't like going out to places like these, so he stayed in with the Godfather. Which is fine with me. Sometimes it's good to have a night out with the girls!

7/26/07

This week, I decided to make a small change, and see how it works. When I was at the store on Friday after work, I bought some breakfast stuff. I never eat breakfast. Breakfast for me is coffee at work. 2 cups usually. Sometimes 3 depending on the morning...

So I wanted to see how breakfast could change my life. Just a small thing to do, and everyone says it's the most important meal of the day. So, I set my alarm to go off 10 minutes early....at 6:30.

On Monday, I woke up, showered, got dressed, and had breakfast. I ate a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats. I've always loved that cereal. Crunchy and sweet. And plus it's probably good for you. And their commercials are hilarious! I think Tylenol tried to steal the jovial spirit with their "i love making tylenol" commericals. Anyways.

So I noticed on Monday at work, I only had 1 cup of coffee. But it was a bit rushed that day. So no big change. On Tuesday, J had to get up early for work and so even though my alarm went off at 6:30, I couldn't get in the shower till 6:40. I skipped breakfast this morning. I realized mid-day I could have gotten up and had breakfast BEFORE my shower. But that just didn't seem right.

Wednesday came, and I had breakfast again! I noticed I wasn't so starved by 10:30. Normally at that time, when the stomach starts growling, I go for another cup of coffee to subside the noise. Oh, and I actually got to work by 8am. Not normal for me.

Today is Thursday. I'm really liking having breakfast. And, for whatever reason, I seem to have much more time in the morning, despite getting up ONLY 10 minutes earlier.

7/25/07

Have you ever watched that show? It's crazy. That guy has some ginormous testicles. Anyone who chooses to be dumped in the middle of nowhere with a knife, flint, and cup is pretty daring.

J and I started watching this a few weeks ago. Actually, he found it, but I just wasn't interested. He told me how great it was, and finally, I gave in. This guy is so brilliant! I watch with amazement how he finds stuff to eat, plants to use for medical aid, shelter, sometimes even transportation! One episode he drank his own pee to stay hydrated and another he used it to keep him warm at night.

With the first few episodes I saw, he was in a warm climate. It reminded me somewhat of survivor - and how most of their locations are tropical and warm. Mainly because they're afraid of what would happen to those people in a cold climate. Well, after watching him tackle the elements on Sunday's airing, I know people can survive cold too! He skinned a dead deer to have a blanket. I learned how they do it, without getting all bloody (who knew?). Also learned how to get out of a marsh, how to make Pine Needle tea, and snow can sometimes help keep you warm (really??)

So learn somethings. In case you ever get dropped off in the middle of nowhere in a cold cold place! With nothing to eat!

7/20/07

I know I got the name wrong. I appologize. But our friend, CM, showed up tonight. He's in between moving to San Fran for law school and being stuck in our valley. And he's bored. So he showed up.

J and I have been watching the series on VH1 on pop culture. We watched it last year, and it was exciting. Well, maybe that's not the right word....But we were interested. I mean, a quiz show where it's real people - count us in!

This year we've been tivo'ing all of them, and on some nights, turned them into our own competition. Since they're all tivo'd, we compete against each other. I'd suggest others to take note, but, well, the last episode aired tonight. Oh well. But here's what we did...

Because we live together (and our lives are OH so exciting), we'd compete against each other. We'd let Pat (yes, first name basis) read the question, then pause it. If it was my turn to go first, I'd respond, and J'd give a back-up answer. We hit play. Whoever was right got a point. At the end of the game, whoever lost had to do the shitty before bed rituals. Ours? Turning off all the lights and making sure the AC was set at a good temperature. (good lord, we're boring. lol).

So, tonight, we thought we'd "spice" things up and get CM involved. So far, J's winning. we're up for the last part of the competition. And, of course, I'm on Team J! all the way!

And ps. don't play this game if your brain cells seem to run and hide after a bit of alcohol. lol

J and I got the itch again - to visit Colorado. So, we both searched our calendars for the perfect weekend, well, LONG weekend......We settled upon mid August to go visit our friends in Colorado. C&J moved there last August. We ventured there with some other friends during the holiday season (celebrated New Year's there) and really enjoyed it. Of course it snowed, and it was cold, but even that didn't bother us. Bizarre, huh?

So, we decided that we need to see them during the summer, when it's warm. I hope to get outside a lot (maybe even con my cousin who lives there to take us out on her boat) and just enjoy a lovely summer get-away. It is much different than my sister's get-away, but I know we'll have just as much fun. We miss C&J very much, and I know they're just as excited!

7/19/07

Well, 11 years ago, my mom, sister, and I packed up our uhaul and moved to our lovely town we now call home. Compared to where I grew up, this is paradise. But, also full of expensive, rich taste, people, stores, cars, homes, etc.

But back then, I was just about to start high school. Actually, before we made the decision to move here, I had already enrolled and was accepted into a high school down there. I was going from a catholic elementary school to a catholic high school. In fact, it was the same one my mom and dad attended, and also my cousin. I remember walking around that place - so old. Everything (my mom said) looked exactly as she had left it about 20 years before. She showed me the room where she took home-ec and sewed her own corduroy jumpsuit (we also found this when we were packing. My lord the 70s were hideous).

So, when we moved up here, I knew only my family. My aunt, uncle, and 3 cousins lived 5 minutes away. And you knew this because every morning that summer my aunt would show up to "motivate" us to unpack. Ya, nothing like being 14 and being excited to unpack!

That summer I also did volleyball camp. That was a problem. I wasn't very good at it. I had bruises on my hips for weeks and ended up not making it. Which is probably a good thing. I knew 1 person on my first day of high school - a girl I met in volleyball camp. I don't think she made it either. Can't remember. But it was quite a shock going from elementary school (practically the same 30 people in my class for the 8 years I was enrolled) to about 600 kids in my freshman class. That campus was massive, but everything was brand new.

The best thing was I no longer had to wear a uniform. I was able to buy and wear whatever I chose. Which, at sometimes, was difficult. I did miss not having to think about what I wore to school every day. But, I loved the opportunity to be an individual and wear whatever.

Looking back I have mixed feelings about high school. I enjoyed it, participated in lots of clubs and activities. I attended almost all the dances, the football games, and the pep rally's. I had some freedom, less worries, and always looked forward to the summer. Of course now, I have money to do things, but also the stress of bills, rent, full-time job, etc. If only we could take some of the carefree parts of high school and mix them in with the "now" to balance things out.

7/17/07

So, my sister and long time family friend left yesterday for Europe for about 3 weeks. They're splitting their time between Greece and Italy. Today, she sent an email out while at the airport (didn't fly directly to Greece) and wow. Just wow. Europe sure is in for a trip with these two girls. So far the friend, N, has been yelled at for being on the wrong side of the escalator, almost got hit by a taxi, and both almost missed both flights to get to London in the first place. And they've only been in Europe for about a day. lol.

These two...they're going to give my mother a heart attack. But hopefully they'll start assimilating themselves a bit more and become more careful!

7/14/07

I've been working all week to try to increase my signal strength on my internet. It's been quite the challenge. J and I've been dealing with a weak signal for the past year, but I think it's finally getting to the point where we're just tired of it.

First I bought a newer wireless router. It claimed to be 10x the signal strength and speed of the basic g model (which is what we have). While it didn't really increase the range much, it did help a bit and worked much faster.

Then I searched online to see what other options we had to utilize. There was a menagerie of stories, reviews and blogs about what you can use. Unfortunately, there was a lot of contradiction on the sites. I contacted Circuit City on Thursday to see what they have to offer. I bought a range extender (also sometimes known as a repeater) and the folks at Circuit City actually had it set up in their store. The only possible problem was that the brands of the router and the extender were different. But, they said it should work.

After about an hour of messing around with it, and messing up some of my settings, I went from having a weak signal, to no signal, and then got it back. But the extender didn't work. It wasn't showing up. I did some live chat with their tech service through the company. It was helpful for the most part. The person was working to help me configure it manually instead of using the automatic setup disk that just wasn't cutting it. After 2 hours, and losing service 3 times, I called it a night.

Today I tried again. Success! I could find the extender, set it up how I needed it to be, but one small (and confusing) problem...My wireless on my computer said I had an excellent signal strength (yay!) but I coudn't connect to the internet! It said that (even though 4 bars showed up) I had "little or no signal." And, after trying a bunch of different configurations, I still can't get it to work. So back to the drawing board!

7/12/07

Yesterday I had a follow-up for a mole I had removed a bit ago - and it was found to be precancerous. So, with yesterday's check up, the doctor said he could see some cells growing back. So, after 2 shots of anesthetic (he said my skin's resiliant!) and lots of tears later (I couldn't help it) I finally again, had the mole removed. Hopefully I won't ever have to go through that again. It was so painful.

Because he wanted to go down further, and cut out as much of the cells as possible, I'm now the proud owner of some scars. Well, just one to be exact. Yes, I'm 25 years old and this is my first official "scar." I have about 3 or so stitches behind my knee. I walk like a gimp right now (I don't want them to pull out!). And I also had another mole shaved off on my scalp. Good times, huh?

When I told my mom, she said the moles is from my "dad's side." How easy it is to blame these imperfections on him! And when I told my dad, he said "well, we have moles, but your mom's side does too!". I see a pattern here - Blame game anyone?

It was just one thing after another yesterday. I was relieved when I was able to call it a day at work and just head home. I finally finished all those reports (another one magically appeared in my inbox late yesterday....) and I've done my good task for the week. Or it's the third, fourth, or fifth.....

7/10/07

Well, today has been one of the top 10 worst days at work. I was given a pile of reports to verify and update. And of course, they need them yesterday. It humors me how they wait till the final second to get the info. And reference (multiple times) how important it is to hurry up and finish.

My boss asked me if I wanted to know what the reports were for. I said no. Personally, unless it has anything to do with me making more money, I don't care. Is that a bad attitude? I don't care. I'm tired, my eyes hurt, I have more to do tomorrow, and my new computer arrived today. And since I'm such a nice employee, I'm not even bothering our IT guy to put my stuff on there. Yup, doing it myself. I wonder if I could charge a $200 fee? Probly not.

7/7/07

Well, maybe for the next 1000 years. I know of a lot of people who headed to Vegas for the weekend. But at rooms ranging from $300+ a night, I prefer to stay home. And what service! J woke me up to pancakes, eggs, and coffee. He hasn't done that in forever. And they were so yum.

Last night we went and saw Live Free or Die Hard. It was good, lots of crazy stunts and stuff that obviously wouldn't happen in the real world. But it was nice to see a good action film. I believe this is the last Die Hard that will be made. But who knows, guys like that (Bruce Willis, Harrison Ford...) like to make the movies that made them famous back in the day. As long as it will be a good movie, go ahead. But, if it's just to make another one, and the writing/acting/stunts suck...Just leave it alone.

This weekend is the final hurrah for some of J's friends. One's heading away to school and another is finally going to relocate to this super small town on the central coast. His wife's been there for almost a year now, but he has been here working and trying to get their home sold. Finally, after a year's worth of work and waiting, they finally sold it and can move up there. Of course all the guys give him a hard time. This town is not known for much. But we told him it's a great time to invest in some flannel plaid shirts, shit kickers, and cowboy hats. And belt buckles :o) He's defiantely not that type. But I know J will be sad again. Just a year ago his best friend moved away and that was pretty tough. Even though they all joke, I know they're all quite sad. Another chapter of their lives have ended, but together the ones remaining will work on a new adventure.

Hopefully involving less craziness. But the craziest of them all are the ones still here!

7/6/07

You've got to be f-ing kidding me. Today, I come in to a manager refusing to obey CA labor laws. I've got a guy who's fallen off the face of the earth (yes, it seems to be a reoccurring story). And then just now, I get a call from a new hire. She was supposed to start Monday, but the manager asked to push it back to the 16th. The recruiter told me she'd call the girl to tell her. But nope, didn't happen. So I had to tell her. Like a rambling idiot. I hate flakes.

But, so the disappearing guy. We've been working with him for a month now, but he was a little slow at first to do everything. Then, it was quickly approaching the time he was supposed to start. I was making calls, the recruiter, and the recruiter's boss. He sent everything in but one thing. We've been after that for the whole week. Today we made the decision he couldn't start on Monday. But, lo and behold, guess who calls me? 3 o'clock on a Friday. The guy. Ya, apparently, his current employer countered, and he's staying there. I guess that he just is a real pain and didn't want to tell us sooner. So now we get to call the manager. I don't like people with shitty ethics like that. I wish I could call his current boss to explain his work ethic. But no, not gonna waste any time on him!

Bring on the weekend. Finally some fun in the sun - going to relax at the beach on Sunday with friends, bbq, and beer. Try the Heineken light, it's super yum.

7/5/07

I survived the 4th of July. The party on the 3rd was definitely one of the bests. That block really knows how to entertain. They had a huge bounce house for the kids on the street (and time out for the drunk 20-somethings at night) and then a huge inflatable water slide. Man! Jealous!

But the best part was hanging out with friends, reminiscing about old times. Talking about high school, the things we liked, the funny stories that happened on a particular new years and just everything since then. It's so easy to get stuck on things like that. The next night one of the guys kept wishing and hoping he could go back - life was much easier, no bills, no debt, and good times. Of course, we seem to forget the shitty stuff that happened. Boy drama, girl drama, having no money for anything, not being able to drive, not being able to drink (although some probly did. I didn't till I was out of high school), and of course, rules.

My mom wasn't too bad with the rules. My sister and I didn't really have any. Maybe it was her guilt of us coming from a divorced household. Or it was maybe her way of not being like her mom growing up. She came from a strict family and never really went anywhere. My dad and her started dating in high school, and I know there are stories of them having fun and going out, but nothing too crazy.

I wonder how I'll be as a parent. Will I be strict, or even more relaxed since I wasn't raised with many rules or restrictions? Will I be the "fun" mom, the caring one, or the aloof one? who knows. I have a long time to worry about that!

7/3/07

Let the partying begin! Amongst the million degree heat everyone in this town is suffering through, it always helps to imagine the bbqs, the parties, the drinking :)

Since HS, Shortie's family - actually neighborhood - throw a party every 4th of July. Since we graduated, they've tapered from roaring events, to just a few houses participating. Last year, it was (for the most part) scratched and we all headed to a Dodger game (way fun). But, this year, it was resurrected. But, they're smart, and it's tonight instead of tomorrow. Why? Because, well, we all love to party, which includes drinking, and staying up late, and why would you do that when you have to go to work the next day? So, tonight we'll be gathering up the wieners, the hamburgers, chips, dip, fruit, cookies, mmmm. And alcohol. Poor Shortie - she can't party that much. She's learning dancing is somewhat a challenge as her "bump" grows. SO CUTE!

But I'm sure with the drunken menageries we can figure something out - some way for her to get her groove on. And tomorrow - more bbq-ing. This time, different location, with a view of the town's fireworks. Then back to work. But I am enjoying this day and a half off. :o)